Room for Growth

Any decent-sized sports venue offers a variety of concessions and meals- popcorn, soft drinks, beer, pizza, hot dogs, burgers, gyros, churros, cotton candy, etc. The moment you enter through the gates, it’s an eatery Palace of Versailles. Rows and rows filled with burger places, pizza places 1 , popcorn places- you name it, they have it. However good the variety is, the food experience at these venues are collectively horrific; the waves of spectators all crowding a tiny Little Caesars, trying to get a slice before the end of halftime 2 . The average wait time approximately 15-45 minutes depending if the game is close or a blowout 3 . After the exhausting wait to order, you pay $25.32 for a slice of pizza, drink, and popcorn. You pay the ridiculous price because that is the only option for food 4 . After another 30 minutes 5 waiting for your food in the crowded sea of bathroomgoers, you finally get your reheated frozen pizza. Now you go back through the dreaded labyrinth to find...

“In Mormon culture, authority is respected, obedience is revered, and independent thinking is not.” -Terry Tempest Williams, The Clan of One-breasted Women Once upon a time, a clan of pink elephants thrived north of the vast Mojavian lands. These friendly creatures, being the devout Mormons they were, strictly kept the teachings of Jesus Christ. Between their mud-bath bible studies and community missions work, the pink elephants were an isolated, passive breed. Alas, I’m sorry to say these are the only uplifting parts of their lives you’ll hear today. It all started with the newcomers: the mice clan. These peculiar creatures- red-eyed, blue-furred, and white-tailed- immediately seized control. They established a council of mice who wrote, enforced, and judged the newly created laws. The pink elephants were terrified, so they held an emergency service: “Everyone, stay calm, God has told us to be ever obedient, so we must follow the rules of the mice,” One said. “We must ...

Deborah Tannen claims that in the English language, “the female [is] declared by grammarians to be the marked case”- how does Spanish compare? (555).   Spanish is similar to English in its sentence structure, conjugations, and many cognates. The French roots of English make it logical to compare it to Spanish because French and Spanish are both Romance languages. It would be fairer to compare English to French or German but alas, I only know Spanish. As Tannen describes it in her essay, English adds linguistic participles like -ette or -ess to portray women. However, this is only to some professions such as a waitress or a stewardess. In Spanish, all nouns are masculine or feminine in nature. “La flor” will always be a feminine word, “the flower.” “El cuchillo” will always be the masculine word, “the knife.” This is not all: every adjective has to agree in gender also. To say “the beautiful flower” and “the beautiful knife,” it is “la flor hermosa” and “el cuchillo hermos...

In the midst of the gray, concrete L.A. overpasses stands the “Great Wall” mural. This masterpiece designed by Professor Judith Baca and painted by over 400 students tells the history of Los Angeles. Staring all the way from prehistoric times, the mural encases the mixed cultures and roots of Los Angeles. The “Great Wall” stretches about a half mile along the banks of a flooding channel. Before Baca decided to embark on her grand project, the channel was a dull eyesore. The giant concrete ditch blended into the routine life of L.A. The channel only served its practical purpose; it was nothing special. Thankfully, Judith Baca decided to do something about seeing that gray wall everyday out of her window. Through her dedication, the wall is now a tourist attraction and pride of the historic city. The boring eyesore turned into something to appreciate as people drove to work. Not only does the mural improve the general attitude of Los Angeles, but it also brings th...

Lieutenant Dan is a character from Forrest Gump . Serving as Gump’s Lieutenant in Vietnam, he is wounded in an ambush. Gump saves the Lieutenant along with the rest of his company. From his injuries, he loses both of his legs below the thighs. Along with his legs, he lost everything: job, glory, direction in life. One night, he jumps on Forrest and yells in frustration, “Why didn’t you just let me die like I was supposed to?” This bitter anger drives him to give up in life. He lives as a hobo, alone and aimless. Much like Lieutenant Dan, Soyster expresses the frustration in becoming disabled. He describes it as Circe’s Spell” and how multiple sclerosis turned him into “something” else (Soyster). The loss of his legs took away his meaning in life which was full of marathons, cycling, and skiing. In parallel to Lieutenant Dan, he sees himself as a useless “cripple” just “waiting” for life to take its due course (Soyster). However, Lieutenant Dan has a far different ending than So...

Greetings, I am Dr. Cole Greenehaus reporting my extensive environmental studies to you. My many years of research has provided me enough evidence to make this claim: climate change is NOT REAL. In this society of “radical subjectivism” you must not believe ANYTHING someone tells you, but you should trust me. My argument is supported by many credible politicians like Donald Trump, who also wisely decided to cancel the United States from the global climate agreement a few months ago. The world was shocked at the bold move by the United States, but climate change isn’t real. It was just a big waste of money, and we as a nation should focus the funds to much more important matters like repealing Net Neutrality and spending months on end discussing to replace an Universal Healthcare which is still under the works folks. Important decisions like this, to replace a fully functioning healthcare plan with a virtually same one, takes YEARS to do. Anyway, back to climate chang...

How horrible would it be to live in such a world where there is no privacy, no trust between neighbors, and no rights? To be constantly spied on by a “Big Brother” figure? All around, there are cameras constantly recording every one of your movements. Any suspicious activities are directly reported to the elite heads of the Administration. They can look through all of your private information such as cell phone records, social media, and text messages. All the reasoning they need is suspicion. In this theoretic society, the evidence gathered such as the constant camera recordings can be used against you in court. Even though this evidence was not gathered under a search warrant, it can definitely be used as legitimate evidence. There is also no trust or relationship between neighbors. The extent of neighbors is yelling to “keep your kids off my lawn” and filing noise complaints. Neighbors are expected and encouraged to report any suspicious activities and betray each other’s t...